Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-09-17
SPORTING.
A Thirty-Six. Mile Race Between the
Volunteer and May flower. 10 De-
clio Which Shall Meet the
Thistle.
The Volunteer the Successful Contestant
The Thistle Takes Part in the Race
and Is Outsailed
The Volunteer Chosen.

The Volunteer Chosen. ]
NEw YORK, Sept. IL "A third sttemp: !
to lave a trial race to choose the ablest |
yacht as the defender OF Americas cup
against the Scotch yacht Thistle resulted |
in one Ct the finest contests seen in these
waters. There was strong wind from |
north to northwest all day. II !
:actei velocity Of thirty miles an hour
added to the splendid condition of the
elementswas the excellent Judgment Of the |
committee who decided after they got
under way that a triangular should be
sailed That decision gave the contest |
ants a course of thirty-six miles 10 be
sailed over, with the wind on every hand. |
They had a rul to the leeWard OF ten
miles, g stretch Of nine miles and return,
and heat for home of ten miles. At
every turn and every weather ex
cept curing the first part Of the
run to the leeWard, when the
Ma f over sailed better than the Vol
unteer, the latter beat her opponent.
The outcome of the days race was that
the Volunteer was chosen by Americas
cup committee who judged evenly from
the flag ship Fl CHI to meet the Thistle
in the national contest. The Thistle was
out too, but her handling was of such q
kind during the first half of the race IS
II give no idea of what she could do.
Alter that the Scotch ysCht was evidently
iiled for all she was worth and
WAS outsailed by both the Mayf0Ter and
Volunteer. The yachts started with
twenty-five miles bTeeZ3, the Volunteer
having the best of it for 4 short time.
The May fl over decreased the LEAD, but
on getting the spinaker out of the wind
snd later having her topsRil split from
foot to back, she lost ground and was
afterwards left behind. The T1istle WAS
mile away when the Others made the
start. She had Only one lilo be-
sides her main sail at first,
but after time rGa out her
spiDaker and q worsing topssil. From
the time that the Thistle put cut her
spinaker just as the Volunteer passed her,
she was practically in the race. Whether
or not she wss always sGiled for what
she was worth is very wide question.
On the first run the Volunteer beat the
other two easily. The yachts rounded
the tug Havisnd, which formed the
first stake, SIS follows: Volunteer,
| Mayfower, Thistle. Then the cor
testouts following g signal shown
on the Electra came up close into
the wind and stretched over toward
the NV jersey shore TO round the E,eC-
tria { # at Bury Park. The MsyhoWer
went steadily ahead of the other boats
and headed about for the Heaviland. On
the return to the Heaviland there was s
good chance 20 see Whist the Thistle could
do with the MaYhower, if she were sin
Cerely sailed as she seemed TO be. Both
vessels had their topmasts housed and
both were sailing under mainsail, fore
stays III and lib, The Mayfiower did he
better work of the two, as the time of
rounding the Heaviland buoy shows,
| The Volunteer retained her topsail, and
! whether thst WGS the cause or not she led
the MayfoWer and Thistle e9tern as though
ishe had some other business than
in heir company. Always before this
the Volunteer had out pointed aud out
footed the Mayf3wer and Thistle, bat
Etle home run showed she was even better
than anything sae had done before, lsy-
ing into the wind and going through the
water ct the same time, with g wind so
strong that she could not cary Clue top
sal. The Volunteer left her sister and
her third cousin SO far in the rear that
the Judges determined there was no need
OF another race to find out who should
meet the Thistle in the match race, and
picked her out in their minds before
two tscks had been made, and every
body said they were right. The Thistle
being outpointed and generally run away
from By the MaYf over still stuck plucktly
to the course she had started in on and
finished % minutes SO 3 seconds after
the MayhOWer. Every one got q grand
salute from the excursion boats and the
stem yachts Atlanta, Stranger, Kinda
and several others that were present CT
the finish. The Volunteers victory wss
by IG minutes , > seconds over the
May hower. AS the victor was
being towed by the press boat
the Thistle sailed by and her crew gave
three cheers to the champion of the day,
which were cordially responded to by
the Volunteer people, and after the yachts
came to anchor eff Bay Ridge, Chairman
Smith Of the American Cup committee
notified General Payne and Commodore
Morgan that the Volunteer had been Sc
lected as the defender of the cup.